Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Are female teacher better for girls ?

Are female teachers better for girls? or male teachers better for boys? One interesting (may be controversial ) study say the answer is yes. According to the author, Thomas S. Dee (an economist at Swarthmore College), “Learning from a teacher of the opposite gender has a detrimental effect on students, My best estimate is that it lowers test scores for both boys and girls by approximately4%of a standard deviation and has even larger effects on various measures of student engagement".

I am just glad that the 4% is not a big number (if it is confirmed by other studies). Be reminded that about 80% of teachers in U.S. public schools are women currently - the same likely to be true, more or less, for other countries.

Dee said he also discovered that a teacher's gender influenced attitudes towards student behavior: Female teachers were more likely to see boys as disruptive, and male teachers were more likely to see girls as inattentive.

I wish I had taken teaching as profession. I'd have liked to teach at a girls college. Who cares if men are better teachers or women are better teachers for girls. I think I can do a better job of teaching than men. I'd have loved the OPPORTUNITY to have been stared at by boosmy women wondering if they are arousing me with their looks if not with thedir boobs. But it is too late for that.

All kids (boys and girls)need a positive male role model. Too many kids nowadays are from broken homes, living usually with their mothers and often in fear of all things masculine. Not all men are bad!